Our chefs

July 2009, Unilever Food Solutions hosted a series of Catering for Profit Seminars in our state of the art Kitchen Studio in Dublin. The seminars brought some of the biggest names in the Irish Hospitality and Catering industry together to help them ‘cater for profit’ in the current recession. Our guest speakers were Wembley Stadium’s Executive Head Chef and 2006 Ryder Cup Executive Head Chef Frank Coughlan and Calum Watson Executive Head Chef and Director of Operations for Marco Pierre-White, the speakers gave advice on how to maintain quality and profit margins.

Working for Hell’s Kitchen’s Marco Pierre-White and preparing quality food in one of Europe’s biggest entertainment venues means that both Frank and Calum are used to dealing with some of the most demanding customers in the world. Both chef’s have developed the skills and gained the experience necessary to continue to grow their business in the midst of an economic downturn and they passed on their knowledge to Irish Chef’s who attended the Seminars.

Calum Watson

• Executive Head Chef & Director of Operations of Frankie’s Bar & Grill – Marco Pierre-White’s collaboration with Frankie Dettori.
• Has worked in London with culinary greats Pierre Koffman & Anton Edelmann at leading restaurants, La Tante Claire and The Savoy.
• Established Ditto in London, generating a turnover of £1.4 million in one year.
• Gross profits on food alone were an impressive 75% and the restaurant achieved a consistent four in the Good Food Guide for three years running.
  Whilst at the helm of Ditto, Calum was again a finalist in the National Chef of the Year competition and began writing as a contributing editor for Men’s Health – one of Europe’s top selling magazines.

Frank Coughlan

• Wembley Stadium's Executive Chef
• Frank's career highlight was coming home to cater for over 30,000 guests at the Ryder Cup at the K Club in 2006. His outstanding work was recognised by then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern who presented him with an award for his contribution to promoting Irish food.
• For the Ryder Cup, there was a one piece Irish stew with rumps of lamb and over the five days 36,000 people were fed with 11,000 rumps of lamb and requiring 5,500 sheep.
• At Wembley on a match day there can be up to 12,000 hospitality covers.
• Last year Coughlan and his team of chefs served up 37,700 portions of dry aged Scottish fillet steaks, 55,576 portions of Scottish salmon Supremes and 43,000 Cornish lamb rumps.